Togo, Angola, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukrain, Czech Republic, Ivory Coast and Ghana are all debutantes. None of the traditional African powerhouses are there.

Notable absentees from Europe are Turkey, Uruguay, and Belgium.The European groups were extremely lopsided, which meant an easy ride for England, Italy, and Portugal, while Turkey were deprived of a place inspite of gallantly fighting back against the Swiss.

Special mention: Australia, after losing playoffs for so many years, they finally managed to go through.

btw, there seems to be a LOT of new teams this year round. now i'll be pissed if even half of them make it to the quarter finals.

GuruTM

November 17, 2005, 11:48 AM

Originally posted by AsifTheManRahman
first time for czech rep, and uruguay an absentee from europe? :-/

sorry, couldn't resist :P

btw, there seems to be a LOT of new teams this year round. now i'll be pissed if even half of them make it to the quarter finals.

Uruguay is not from Europe and this is not first time for Czech rep.

Xavier

November 17, 2005, 12:25 PM

It is the first time for Czech Republic to the world cup since Czechoslovakia split in 1993, so that's not properly a mistake.

btw these qualifiers have been much disappointing in the end as a lot of good and/or interesting teams won't be in next world cup: Russia, Ireland, Romania, Turkey, Scotland, Greece (Euro 2004 champions!), Uruguay, Colombia, Cameroon, Morocco, South Africa, China... I think FIFA should improve qualifying system!

bdmoderator

November 17, 2005, 04:33 PM

Brazil the team who never missed any football World Cup and we Bangladesh are the team who never played there :P

AsifTheManRahman

November 17, 2005, 04:40 PM

Originally posted by TeamManager
Uruguay is not from Europe

see the second line. :)

Banglatiger84

November 18, 2005, 02:28 AM

My bad.

I know very well Uruguay are not from Europe.

And this is first time for Czech Republic. Czechoslovakia took part previously, but not Czezh republic after independence

Banglatiger84

November 18, 2005, 02:36 AM

Originally posted by Xavier
It is the first time for Czech Republic to the world cup since Czechoslovakia split in 1993, so that's not properly a mistake.

btw these qualifiers have been much disappointing in the end as a lot of good and/or interesting teams won't be in next world cup: Russia, Ireland, Romania, Turkey, Scotland, Greece (Euro 2004 champions!), Uruguay, Colombia, Cameroon, Morocco, South Africa, China... I think FIFA should improve qualifying system!

Scotland and China good teams? :D

In all fairness the best 4 Asian teams qualified. China were unable to defeat even Kuwait.

All the European teams that qualified are better than Scotland at this point. The only unfair bit was Turkey missing out for the boring Swiss.

Cameroon will be missed, no Etoo in the world cup??

And Togo and Angola in???

:D:D:D

bourny3

November 18, 2005, 03:33 AM

Whats togo. GO Aussies. lol they wont draw a match.

Rubu

November 18, 2005, 07:47 AM

OMG! My favorite Nigeria is not there! I was the only supporter in our para on world cup '98 who supported nigeria.

Xavier

November 18, 2005, 09:52 AM

Originally posted by Banglatiger84
Originally posted by Xavier
It is the first time for Czech Republic to the world cup since Czechoslovakia split in 1993, so that's not properly a mistake.

btw these qualifiers have been much disappointing in the end as a lot of good and/or interesting teams won't be in next world cup: Russia, Ireland, Romania, Turkey, Scotland, Greece (Euro 2004 champions!), Uruguay, Colombia, Cameroon, Morocco, South Africa, China... I think FIFA should improve qualifying system!

Scotland and China good teams? :D

In all fairness the best 4 Asian teams qualified. China were unable to defeat even Kuwait.

All the European teams that qualified are better than Scotland at this point. The only unfair bit was Turkey missing out for the boring Swiss.

Cameroon will be missed, no Etoo in the world cup??

And Togo and Angola in???

:D:D:D

I wrote "good and/or interesting teams" and I consider Scotland and China as interesting teams because:

- Scotland play offensive football with a lot of fighting spirit. Also their fans are much passionate and it's nice to see them at the world cup.

- China are a football-developing-country. I gues that in a 10 or 20 year time they will follow the same road the Usa have gone, becoming a force in international football.
It surprised me to see them sent out by Kuwait (on goal-difference) but they won East-Asian Championship afterwards, leading on Japan and both Koreas.

We have to remember that international football is much more competitive than cricket: while we cannot think that Zimbabwe and Bangladesh (9th and 10th team in the world) can beat Australia at test cricket, any team on top 50 list of FIFA football ranking can beat on a good day one of the best international teams (except Brasil, maybe).

AsifTheManRahman

November 18, 2005, 10:41 AM

Originally posted by Banglatiger84
And this is first time for Czech Republic. Czechoslovakia took part previously, but not Czezh republic after independence

yeah, my bad. i probably mixed up the WC and the Euro.

Banglatiger84

November 18, 2005, 11:48 AM

Ok, I will be shameless and politically incorrect here.

teams at the next world cup which are boring for the neutral viewer include Togo ,Angola, Ecuador, Paraguay, Switzerland, and maybe Poland.

T&T will be fun to watch simply because of their carefree, relaxed attitude.

Teams that will be missed include Nigeria, Cameroon, Turkey, Uruguay, and Ireland.

You were right,Xavier, about the Scottish fans. The Tartan army is well known for their passion and it would have been great to see them play against England at the World cup.

mhferdaus

November 19, 2005, 01:34 PM

Originally posted by Rubu
OMG! My favorite Nigeria is not there! I was the only supporter in our para on world cup '98 who supported nigeria.

I once believed that they could be the only team outside South America and Europe to win the world cup.

I also would miss Senegal.

But what the heck as long as Brazil and Argentina are playing in it, it would be a fine world cup.

Interesting to see number of South American teams = number of Asian teams who have qualified for the world cups.

Dawah

November 22, 2005, 03:04 PM

I have heard a "rumor" from an aged British fan (70+ years old, Newcastle United fan, UK) that world cups are set up. It is pre-decided who will win the cup and mostly it is done in the favor of which countries fans brings more money to FIFA.

If world cup in Europe, one European nation was supposed to win it. Main money making European countries must not miss out from WC are: 1. Germany, 2. England, 3. Italy, 4. France, 5.Spain. World cup winners would be: Germany or England or France or Italy or Brazil (Brazil brings a lot of money for FIFA since they are hugely popular). The year Argentina kicked Brazil out from last 8, FIFA lost a huge amount.

Banglatiger84

November 24, 2005, 07:08 AM

Originally posted by Dawah

I have heard a "rumor" from an aged British fan (70+ years old, Newcastle United fan, UK) that world cups are set up. It is pre-decided who will win the cup and mostly it is done in the favor of which countries fans brings more money to FIFA.

If world cup in Europe, one European nation was supposed to win it. Main money making European countries must not miss out from WC are: 1. Germany, 2. England, 3. Italy, 4. France, 5.Spain. World cup winners would be: Germany or England or France or Italy or Brazil (Brazil brings a lot of money for FIFA since they are hugely popular). The year Argentina kicked Brazil out from last 8, FIFA lost a huge amount.

Such rumors are baseless unless there is any evidence of apparently biased refereeing supporting the "favored" nations.

Aussies are an excellent team. They completey outclassed Uruguay. They were under the pump for the whole match. The aussies had many scoring opportunities. There team is on the up - some very talented players who are playing in high-calibre euro and s.american teams.

Plus, they Guus Hidink, who took South Korea to the semis and also his native dutch national team to similar success in the past.....

So watch out! Aussies never give up in a scrap!! :mad:

AsifTheManRahman

November 24, 2005, 02:06 PM

u mean this guy's played for S.Korea and Holland, AND will also be playing a world cup as an OZ?

jabbar

November 24, 2005, 02:07 PM

no ding-bat! he's the COACH !

Banglatiger84

November 25, 2005, 12:35 AM

Its very hard to predict how Australia will do.

Australia right now can be compared to 2nd tier European time, like Sweden, Ukraine, Poland etc.

This means, that on their day, and with some deal of luck, they can beat any of the top ten teams in the world.

However, whether that will actually happen in the world cup is another story.

And for the note, Uruguay had the upper hand in the first leg, Australia in the 2nd, thats not outclassing.

Australia won through penalties, which means they just scrapped through.

Xavier

November 25, 2005, 03:42 PM

Originally posted by AsifTheManRahman
u mean this guy's played for S.Korea and Holland, AND will also be playing a world cup as an OZ?

That could never happen in international football because players can only play for one national team in their career.

I think it's a fair rule, otherwise you would have strongest countries "stealing" players from minnows.

AsifTheManRahman

November 25, 2005, 03:57 PM

lol. yeah, i realized later who Guus Hidink was...been out of touch with soccer for a long time :)

Edited on, November 25, 2005, 8:57 PM GMT, by AsifTheManRahman.

James90

November 25, 2005, 08:01 PM

Originally posted by Banglatiger84
Special mention: Australia, after losing playoffs for so many years, they finally managed to go through.

Theres the final list.

• Australia

Hell yeah!
Aloisi's penalty must be up there as one of the greatest moments in Australian sporting history